


To Grow Old With You

by elliemoran



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Child Neglect, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Loneliness, M/M, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-04
Updated: 2016-04-04
Packaged: 2018-05-31 04:06:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6454993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elliemoran/pseuds/elliemoran
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The house is ugly, empty, and cold. Levi hates everything about it. Except for the strange, noisy kid next door. </p><p>He's kinda fascinating. A little. Maybe a lot. </p><p>And maybe, just maybe, he's something even more - the answer to the question that Levi doesn't even know to ask.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Grow Old With You

**Author's Note:**

> I've technically been on hiatus for nearly a year now, but I can't NOT write. I mean that would just be impossible. This is the story I've been working on. Slowly.
> 
> I started thinking about this premise one very lonely evening, when I was watching fireflies, and it grew from there. 
> 
> Let me know what you think!

(March)

Icy slush water crept in through the holey canvas of Levi’s shoes as he slowly made his way towards the squat, blocky, vinyl sided house. The fading evening light turned everything a flat blue-grey, making it hard for him to pick out any specific features of the neighborhood, but he was pretty sure this was easily the ugliest building on the block.

The only thing that saved it from looking like a squashed box were the blank, empty windows, and the rest of it was too plain to be creepy. Levi hated it already.

Holding on tightly to the straps of his backpack, he braced himself against a fresh gust of frigid wind. It streamed in from behind him, shoving at his back as if trying to shoo him inside, or at least make his feet move just a _little_ faster.

Ignoring the wind, and the shivers he couldn’t quite control, Levi’s dragging feet came to a complete stop just outside the open front door.

He stood perfectly still, eyes fastened to his uncle’s broad back – it clearly wasn’t the first time Kenny had been here. The tall man moved through the shadowy interior with the ease of familiarity, the giant bundles of plastic bags occupying his hands rustling loudly as he used his elbow to flip up a switch.

The unexpected flood of yellow light made Levi flinch, and blink rapidly as his eyes adjusted. The bright, too harsh light made the room in front of him seem only more unwelcoming against the near twilight outside. 

“Well. This is it.” Kenny heaved up the plastic bags, plopping them down haphazardly on a big table to one side of the large, main room. He shot a quick glance in the general direction of his nephew, still hovering outside. “You planning on spending the night in the truck?”

With a rapid shake of his head, Levi made his feet carry his body forward across the threshold, letting one hand go of his backpack just long enough to pull the door shut behind him.

Inside smelled musty and stale. Levi’s shivering eased, just a little – there was no wind, but the air still felt icy in his lungs.

“It isn’t fancy. But it’s a place to sleep.” Kenny shrugged out of his coat, throwing it over one of the chairs beside the table. “And at least it’s better than that last dump outside Dallas, right?”

Since Kenny seemed to be expecting a reply, Levi nodded.

It must have been sufficient, as his uncle said nothing else.

And it was true, now that he’d adjusted to the light, Levi could see the inside of the house wasn’t terrible.

The walls were white, completely bare, and pale blinds blocked out the windows. The place was so sparsely laid out that it almost seemed disorganized, with each individual piece of furniture set off apart, each one a lonely island against the sea of oatmeal carpet. 

Wisps of fiber and dust floated through the air, gently spraying down from the long disused ceiling fan slowly spinning back to life above their heads. Levi didn’t think whoever lived here had been around in a while - but the carpet looked clean, at least, and the one couch barely used.

That last, particular place they’d stayed at just outside Dallas had been beyond filthy, with so many overlapping, multicolored stains on the carpet that it had taken Levi a long minute to realize it was meant to be plain beige underneath it all. He’d gotten one look at the sheets, and had decided he didn’t even want to check the state of the mattress underneath.

That had been one of the motels where Levi had slept in the bathtub – after scrubbing it down with bleach.   

But this was nothing like _any_ of the motels he’d stayed at with his uncle over the past year – and a few of those had even been pretty decent. Here, there was a dining table, now covered in bags, with four unbroken and matching chairs. There was even a bookshelf, although there wasn’t much more than a half dozen books on it.

A few firmly shut doors led off from the main room, and an open archway appeared to lead to a kitchen. This room alone was good sized, bigger even than any of the apartments he’d lived in with his mom. It was dusty, and empty, but otherwise Levi couldn’t say anything was particularly _wrong_ with it.

It didn’t matter though. He wanted to leave. He wondered how long Uncle Kenny planned for them to stay.

He also wondered if it was ever going to feel warm.

The muscles in his back tightened, and he felt a fresh batch of shivers starting. Clenching his jaw, Levi pressed his elbows against his sides to hold himself as still as he could. The last thing he wanted was for Kenny to think he couldn’t keep up with him, especially now. And Uncle Kenny wasn’t shivering.

Somehow, though he never seemed to look directly at Levi, Kenny must have noticed anyway.

The bags rustled noisily as he turned to dig through them. “Must have set the furnace low, last time I was here.” Evidently finding what he was looking for, Kenny wrestled out a jacket, one of the two he’d insisted on buying for Levi at the Walmart they’d stopped at on their way into town. He strode across the room to his nephew.

“I’ll turn it up in a minute. It’ll heat the place quick enough.”

The creaking of his uncle’s joints echoed loudly in Levi’s ears as he watched the tall man drop to one knee on the carpeted floor in front of him.

“Keep this on for now.” Kenny’s hands were peculiarly gentle as they settled the oversized, puffy brown jacket onto Levi’s shoulders, over his ever-present backpack. His eyes – as they always were when he had to get this close – stayed blank, and firmly away, locked on his own hands, and then on a spot an inch or so beyond Levi’s right ear.

It wasn’t until he’d finished twitching the coat into place that Kenny’s gaze flicked across, for one rare moment, and met Levi’s directly.

Levi found himself holding his breath.

He didn’t know what his uncle saw in his face, but whatever it was had the corner of Kenny’s mouth twisting up in an odd, not altogether happy sort of smile. His hands pausing over Levi’s shoulders, Kenny drew in a breath, opening his mouth as if to speak, and then shutting it abruptly as his phone rang out.

The moment was over, and even worse, Levi knew his uncle must have felt the flinch he hadn’t been able to subdue.

Kenny clambered up to his feet, one hand awkwardly patting the top of Levi’s head, his other pulling out the phone from his pocket. Seconds later, wordlessly, he was stepping through one of the doors off the main room and pulling it firmly shut behind him.

Levi felt his shoulders wilt, and forced them back up. He could still hear the murmur of his uncle’s voice, though he carefully did his best not to pick out any particular words, concentrating instead on the squeak of the fan above his head.

Taking a deep breath, he deliberately pulled his eyes away from the door his uncle had disappeared through.

This must be Kenny’s house, or something near enough.

Levi’s grip tightened again on the straps of his backpack, and this time he let the shivers loose, trembling through his muscles. Despite the warmth of the jacket over his shoulders he didn’t seem to be getting any warmer. He wondered if Kenny would remember to turn up the heat.

But then, he was always cold lately, so it probably wouldn’t make all that much of a difference – and there was no way he’d interrupt Kenny to ask.

It wasn’t all that important anyway. He was more concerned with figuring out what his uncle was planning.  

He’d known something was different ever since they left Texas, with Kenny clearly distracted, and less talkative than usual. He’d driven them straight through the night, not even pulling over to let Levi out, as he usually did, when he’d pick up his frequently ringing phone – instead answering call after call with a muttered “Talk to you later”. 

What exactly Kenny did for a living Levi wasn’t precisely certain. He knew enough to be sure it wasn’t in any way legal, but his uncle got silent, and tight lipped if he asked, and spent far too much effort trying to keep Levi out of it.

So Levi did his best to be as little trouble as possible. He’d get out of the car without complaint, and he’d stay quietly wherever his uncle left him when he went off to do whatever he did. Sometimes Kenny would talk whoever was in the motel offices into letting Levi hang out with them, but that was rare. Mostly, Levi stayed behind in their room, or in the car. 

Which had been fine, right up until that last night in Dallas.

Levi had been waiting in the backseat of the car, pinching himself to keep from falling asleep as he waited for Kenny to come back. When the pair of police cruisers pulled slowly around the corner, he hadn’t hesitated – he’d thrown himself down, curled up into a ball beneath the old blankets he’d kept ready on the floor.

He’d stayed absolutely still, not moving a muscle as the harsh light of the police issue flashlights passed over his head.

Something must have caught their interest, because they’d stuck around. It had been nearly three in the morning before Kenny had managed to get close enough to sneak Levi out.

After that, Kenny had abandoned that car, that nasty motel room, and that job. He’d picked up the truck, and driven them straight here - with a couple stops for gas, and that one at Walmart. They’d filled two shopping carts with food, and more clothes than Levi could remember ever owning in his entire life.

That had been when Levi had actually started thinking about asking where they were going.

Kenny hadn’t volunteered anything.

And Levi was even more hesitant than usual to ask anything at all.  Because even if he didn’t know anything about this place - clearly much more permanent than any motel - he knew _why_ they were here. He’d been getting in the way of his uncle’s work

At least here Kenny wouldn’t have to worry about passing cop cars while he was out doing… whatever he did. And yet, Levi couldn’t help the dread in his gut every time he started wondering how Kenny was going to make this work.

Letting out a long breath, Levi studied the furniture – what there was of it – and shrugged off his new jacket. Gripping it tightly between his knees, not letting it touch the floor, he carefully worked his arms out from the straps of his backpack. They were getting tight, and he was a little pleased with the realization that he must have had a growth spurt lately. He still didn’t want them to rip though.  

The bag had been well, well worn long before his mother had first shortened the straps and passed it down to him. He’d have to extend them again soon, but that could wait.

For now he’d have to work out where to hide the bag while he cleaned up. The room really was so starkly bare - the couch was flush against the wall and stiff - not at all the kind that would disguise something tucked underneath the cushions. The bookshelf was too empty, and the table hid nothing at all whatsoever.

The other doors leading off the room were too much of an unknown, and he didn’t want his backpack too far out of reach.

Finally, he decided to go for expediency, since hiding was out. Carefully, he propped his bag up against the wall a few feet from the front door. He figured could grab it quickly if Kenny suddenly decided it was time to go.

It wasn’t perfect, but until he knew the house better it would do. For now, he needed to feel useful, to get rid of what visible mess he’d already caused his uncle.

His new jacket went up on a coat hook beside the front door, along with his uncle’s trench coat. He took extra care with _that_ as he carried it across the room, both to keep the long hem from trailing on the ground, and to keep his hands away from the heavy weight of the gun in his uncle’s inside pocket.

He tried not to be too irritated that he had to drag one of the chairs over to get high enough to reach the hooks, but it was hard.

He’d always been small for his age, and he hadn’t grown much more than an inch in the last year. His twelfth birthday was coming up – eventually - and he had high hopes for puberty. Very, very privately, sometimes he even let himself imagine what it would be like if he wound up as tall as his uncle.

For now, though, he’d have to use the chair.

There were so many bags piled on the dining room table that Levi finally just climbed up himself, kneeling on the sturdy table to sort through them. There were _so_ many clothes, and they were all his now. He didn’t know how he’d manage to wear even half of the stuff Kenny had bought, let alone how he’d pack all this back up when they started travelling again.

In the end, Levi folded the clothes up, wrapping them neatly with the white plastic bags and stacking them in a tidy pile beside the couch. 

Kenny hadn’t skimped at the edible stuff either. It took seven trips before Levi managed to bring all the bags of food into the kitchen, all the while fighting his constant unease. He was particularly worried by the big gallon of milk – they’d never bought more than a pint at once before, and Kenny didn’t drink it at all.   

He felt too light without his bag on his back, and couldn’t stop his eyes from repeatedly flicking across to where it sat, unmoving, by the front door. It had always held the things most important to him, but since it was all he’d had with him when he and his mother had gone to the hospital that last time, now it was all he had left. The landlady at the room they’d rented had sold everything else.

When Kenny had first brought him back to the old converted house, after the hospital, the woman had all but sneered, eying Levi with more loathing than she’d ever shown when his mother had been alive, as she told them she’d gotten rid of everything.  

“She’s dead, isn’t she? Not like she needs it anymore. She owed me a month’s rent.” With the TV blaring, and the stench of stale beer and heavy floral perfume wafting out from behind her, she’d poked a finger at a loose strand of the ratty white hair piled up on top of her head. “How else was I meant to get what I was owed.”

Levi had stood frozen beside Kenny, staring up at her. After everything else, it had all seemed so anticlimactic.

“I had a right.”

Levi had forced himself to ask about his mother’s photo albums, though he knew he wasn’t going to like whatever her answer was. He’d always kept his most precious ones in his bag, but his mother had had a few from when she’d been a kid, before she’d had Levi.

“I threw all that junk out. Useless bitch. I should have thrown her out too, ages ago, when she got sick. How am I to know I haven’t caught whatever the fuck she had.” 

Kenny had stood behind Levi, staying silent, but as the woman kept talking he’d somehow gotten stiller, and stiller. Finally, Levi had felt a hand land on his shoulder, gripping tightly.

“Go outside, Levi.”

It had been the first of the many times to come that Levi had waited outside for his uncle. When Kenny had come out, he’d handed Levi a paper bag full of cash, and told him to keep it safe. He hadn’t let him use it for anything since, not even the clothes.

So now Levi had a great deal of money, and a backpack. And – Levi paused, glancing over towards the plastic wrapped packages beside the couch – he also now owned a whole pile of clothes too, even if he had nowhere to put them.

The kitchen was in about the same state as the rest of the house he’d seen – nearly empty, but it had probably been clean the last time someone had used it. The bottles of cleaning supplies under the sink were covered in a sticky dust. The only thing in the fridge was a green tinged half-stick of butter, which Levi threw in the trash. He would have liked to scrub everything down before putting anything away, but settled for keeping the food wrapped up in the shopping bags.

He would start with the kitchen tomorrow, if they really did end up staying here.

The bottom cupboards were coated with rodent poop and a few large dead bugs. If Levi had had tape he would have fastened the doors shut, but for the moment he had to settle for just closing them as firmly as he could. He dragged in the very useful chair, which got him up high enough to reach the bottom two shelves of the top cabinets. They were just as dusty, but with no sign of any animal inhabitants.

It was late, and Levi was running on fumes long before he’d finished putting everything away. Hesitating in the center of the living room, Levi finally let himself ease closer to the door Kenny had disappeared through – just close enough to catch the sound of his uncle’s voice, clearly still on the phone.

Backing away, holding back a yawn, Levi studied the room, and decided it was as clean as he could make it, for now. Tomorrow he’d scrub.

One last, stray wisp of dust floating through the air had him scowling up at the ceiling fan. He wasn’t sure he could reach the blades, even with a chair, but _that_ was first on his list.

Another yawn took him by surprise, and Levi finally let himself feel how tired he was. It probably wouldn’t hurt to sleep, at least a little, until Kenny was done. He didn’t have to be on the lookout here, he didn’t think.

With a deep sigh, Levi turned back to the bags and pulled out the one thing Kenny had bought him today that wasn’t for wearing.

The soft, plush throw blanket was a deep green, with a big gray shield on the front beneath two crisscrossed wings. He’d seen it hanging along one of the aisles as they’d pushed the two heavy carts up to the front of the store. Something about it had struck a chord, deep in his chest, and he’d had a hard time dragging his eyes away.

Maybe Kenny had noticed, or maybe he’d just figured Levi needed a new blanket, but he’d thrown it in the cart with everything else. Levi had opened his mouth to protest – it hadn’t been the cheapest blanket there, by a long ways - but Kenny had just told him to stop wasting time.

Now, Levi opened it up, draping it over the couch so he could run his finger over the edge of one of the wings. He didn’t know why, but he loved it.

He threw it over his shoulders, and finally started to feel warm. Wearing the blanket, Levi let himself walk across the room to pick up his backpack.

The sound of an engine right outside the house had his head jerking up. His eyes shot to Kenny’s door – but his uncle didn’t appear.

Biting his lip, Levi edged closer to the window, clasping the backpack to his chest with one arm as he used a hand to try to pull at the blinds. They were fastened at the bottom and top, clearly not meant to open, ever. They weren’t even the kind with gaps, just a single sheet of pleated material.

He couldn’t get enough of a gap to see anything.

Taking a deep breath, and with one more glance at Kenny’s door, Levi very carefully opened the front door just enough to see outside.

There was a car pulling up, into the driveway of the house right next door. The neighbors’ porch light was bright enough for Levi to see the car was something sleek, red, and shiny new.

Nothing like any cop car he’d ever seen.

Muscles loosening, Levi started to pull back as their front door slammed open, and a boy - maybe a few years younger than Levi - came running out. His bare feet thudded on the wooden beams of the porch as he raced across, launching himself heedlessly down the steps at the man just stepping away from the car.

Levi found himself holding his breath, exhaling with relief as the man dropped his suitcase just in time to catch the kid. The boy was oblivious to his near miss, already yelling up at the man before he’d even managed to set him back safely on the ground. 

“Dad! Dad! Hey dad, guess what-” The rest of his words were muffled as the man set a hand over his mouth and levi heard the low murmur of a deep voice telling the boy to stop waking up the neighbors. He was ruffling the kid’s already messy brown hair when a woman stepped out onto the porch.

“ _Eren_. You were supposed to be asleep in bed already.”

The boy scowled, even as he let the man’s hand on his shoulder steer him back up the stairs, clearly paying no attention to the water splashing up the legs of his patterned pajamas. “But mom, my birthday’s only three days away, I _couldn’t_ miss dad again. I have to tell him-”

The rest was cut off as the boy passed through the door into the house, the man kissing the woman’s cheek as they followed him inside.

Pulling back, Levi shut the door. He was halfway across the room when he heard a creak, and his uncle finally stepped back out of his room.

The man’s eyes flicked around the room, from the empty table, to the bags by the couch, to the blanket Levi still had draped over his shoulders.

Wordlessly, he turned to a panel on the wall and flicked a switch. As they both heard the sounds of a furnace kicking to life somewhere in the house, Kenny scrubbed his hands through his hair.

“I’ll have to get you a bed. And a dresser. You’ll have to use the couch for tonight.”

As Kenny went silent again, Levi nodded.

“You put the food away? That’s good. Do you know how to cook?”

Levi nodded. His mom had taught him when she could, and he’d cooked for her when she couldn’t.

“Good, good.”

Somewhere in the walls pipes made trickling noises as hot water started flowing. Levi wondered why it seemed as through Kenny was trying to tell him something that didn’t match the words coming out of his mouth. 

“The second bedroom is empty. You can settle in there. The main bathroom’s back there too.”

Levi nodded again.

Kenny had turned, opened another of the closed doorways into what looked like a laundry closet. As he pulled out a pile of sheets and a pillow, Levi finally started trying to form the words, to ask his uncle how long they were staying.  

“I guess we’ll have to handle setting you up for school too. You’ve done some before, right?”

The breath froze in Levi’s lungs. His eyes went wide as he stared up at his uncle, a mix of painful dread and equally painful hope in his chest.

Kenny must have seen the question Levi couldn’t put into words on his face, but he turned his head away as he dumped the blankets onto the couch. “Why don’t you sleep, for now, we’ll deal with all that in the morning.”

Levi nodded, and then made himself speak. “Okay.”

“Good, good.” Kenny hesitated, and then strode across the room to stand with his hand hovering over the light switch. Evidently he meant for Levi to go to sleep _now_.

Quickly, Levi laid out the sheets over the couch, pausing only long enough to toe off his battered shoes and socks before climbing up into his makeshift bed. He’d have to stay awake long enough to go wash up in the bathroom, once his uncle started snoring. The room went black even as he curled up, still fully dressed beneath the layers of sheets and his new blanket, backpack tucked between his body and the back of the couch.

“Goodnight, Levi.” 

“Goodnight, Uncle Kenny.”

He heard Kenny rustling around, and then the sound of his bedroom door closing behind him.

With a deep, deep sigh, Levi burrowed his head into his pillow. He couldn’t help the little bits of hope stacking up inside him. Maybe this was going to be better even than he could have imagined. He hadn’t minded the travelling, not really. It was all beyond worth it. He only wished he could help his uncle more.

Kenny had been his hero from the very moment they’d met. He’d saved Levi.

Still staggered by the first shock and misery of losing his mother, Levi had been only just beginning to realize how deep and encompassing his loss was going to be, as the only person in the world who even knew he existed – a bored, irritable social worker that acted as though Levi wasn’t worth the paperwork he’d generate – started to tell him what his life would be until he turned eighteen.

And then Kenny had walked into that falsely cheerful office at the hospital and told the social worker to stuff his paperwork up his ass. When the man had protested, Kenny had threatened to help him get it up as far as it evidently needed to go. Levi would never forget the sight of the tall, dark man, surrounded by dated plastic furniture in overbright primary colors, as he’d all but paralyzed that social worker with nothing much more than a very alarming smile.  

He’d told Levi that he was his uncle, that he was taking him with him, and that it was time to go. Levi had never looked back. And despite all the discomfort, the filthy rooms, and the moments of fear, Levi would happily carry on following Kenny forever, and never even dream of a life any other way.  

And he wasn’t letting himself dream, not yet, not really.

But he couldn’t help the very small, very new, flickering ember of hope. A hope that wondered if it would be better now. Wondering if maybe they were going to stay, make a life here that was a little more like the ones Levi sometimes saw glimpses of in those stupid ads for things like cereal, or carpets, or washing machines.

The kind that was maybe a little boring. Permanent. With breakfast at the same table every morning. The kind where he didn’t have to worry about cops, or if _this_ was the time Kenny wouldn’t come back for him.

A slow blink lasted far longer than he’d intended, and Levi realized he was losing the battle to stay awake. Deciding that he’d have to scrub himself, and wash all the sheets in the morning anyway, Levi let himself sleep.

As his consciousness drifted away, Levi found himself idly wondering about the patterned pajama kid from next door. The one who’d thrown himself off his porch, whose birthday was in three days, and whose name was Eren.

He wondered if they’d stay long enough for him to learn anything else about the kid.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

The next morning, Levi woke to the sound of a door banging shut. He sat up, sheets falling around his waist, in time to see his uncle pulling on his coat with one arm as he held his phone to his ear with his other.

“Yeah, yeah. I got it. I’ll take care of it. Tell Duke I’ll be there before sunset-”

Blinking sleepily, Levi slid off the couch, pulling his backpack off the couch, sliding his arms carefully through the straps as he made his way to stand by his uncle.

Kenny stopped talking, staring at Levi as if he’d forgotten he’d existed. He rubbed a hand over his eyes.  “I’ll call you when I get there.” As he hung up, he was pulling out his wallet.

“Levi. I have to go. Here.”

Automatically, Levi put out his hand to take the wad of cash Kenny held out to him. It was a lot. The wallet had been stuffed full, and none of it looked like dollar bills.

“You should have enough there for food, and anything else you need. There’s a grocery store just down the road. The mall’s further out, but you can take a cab. I’ll be back.”

Levi stared up at his uncle, eyes wide, hand still outstretched. He wasn’t sleepy anymore, but he still couldn’t wrap his thoughts around what his uncle was trying to tell him.  “But I can come now-”

Kenny let out a sigh, clearly frustrated.

Instantly, Levi dropped his hand to his side, taking a half step back as he let his eyes fall. He felt a hand awkwardly patting his head.

“You can’t. You’ll stay here.” The voice was firm.

Levi stared at his bare feet, his mind focusing on the fact that he’d forgotten to put on his shoes. He heard rustling as his uncle finished pulling on his coat, as the front door opened. Thoughts were swirling in his head, but nothing was making enough sense for him to put together any words.

“Ah- wait.”

Levi’s head jerked up.

Kenny had pulled a pen, and a crumpled up receipt from his pocket. He quickly scribbled out a number. “Call me if there’s an emergency. I should be back before the money runs out.”

Taking the paper, absently, Levi watched his uncle run a hand through his own hair.  

“Well. Sorry, I meant to settle you in a bit before I had to go.” He shrugged his broad shoulders, clearly uncomfortable. “We’ll have to handle the school thing next time. I’ll arrange for them to deliver a bed, at least.”

He waited a long second, before nodding abruptly, turning away. “See you soon, Levi.”

It wasn’t until the door slammed shut that Levi realized he hadn’t been breathing. Suddenly able to move, he dashed after his uncle, yanking the door back open and running out, bare feet slipping on the re-frozen slush that covered the pavement.

His uncle was already getting into the truck. With an awkward half wave, he started backing out.

The cold was biting into Levi’s toes as he watched his uncle leave, but he couldn’t move. He had no idea what to do.

He was being left behind, here, alone.

The slam from next door made him flinch. He glanced over – the kid was running across the porch again. This time he was dressed, and wearing shoes. 

Quickly, quietly, Levi moved back and slipped in through his own door. Biting his lip, he watched the boy – Eren, as he made his way down the driveway, slipping on nearly every patch of ice.

Miraculously, he made it all the way to the sidewalk before his feet slid out from beneath him and he went down, landing flat on his back. Clearly unfazed, Eren stood back up and raced down the road at exactly the same speed as before, bouncing back up every time he landed on his butt. Fascinated, despite everything, Levi watched until the kid disappeared from view.

And then firmly, decisively, Levi pushed the door shut, pressing his forehead against it for one long moment.

He wasn’t going to think about anything anymore. For now, there was only one thing he knew to do. With a nod, he pulled off his backpack. 

It was time to clean. Everything.


End file.
